Annex 1: Glossary¶
Action Zones¶
A land use zone, equivalent to a nature-based action, which serves to enhance specific planning objects. Zones are determined by restrictions that define where an action may or may not absolutely occur. For example, these hard restrictions limit protection to intact areas (e.g., low human footprint values) and protection/restoration to areas that are moderately impacted by human activity, but not totally dominated by humans (e.g., low and medium human footprint values).
Area-based constraint¶
The maximum area (expressed as a percentage of the total area of the country) that can be assigned to a specific action zone (protection, restoration, management, or urban greening).
Boundary Penalty Factor (BPF)¶
Solutions are penalized based on the total outer boundary or edge of the zones. By penalizing solutions with large edge length, this BPF can be used to promote spatial cohesion or clustering in the spatial prioritization zones of priority areas for KMGBF implementation.
Decision support software¶
A computer application that uses information about possible actions and the limitations of those actions to assist the decision-making process in achieving a stated objective.
Geographic Information System (GIS)¶
Computer system consisting of hardware and software necessary for the capture, storage, management, analysis and presentation of geographic (spatial) data.
Lock-in Features¶
Specific features or areas that are locked-in to a solution. Typically, this would refer to existing protected areas, that are by default locked into an SCP problem creation.
Planning feature¶
A spatial dataset used to map spatial elements of KMGBF Targets 1-12. Each KMGBF target may be mapped by one or more planning features depending on its complexity. Planning features may include ecological classifications, habitat types, species, physical objects, processes, or any element that can be measured in a planning unit.
Planning units¶
Planning units are the basic elements of prioritization analysis. A study area is divided into planning units that are smaller geographic parcels of regular or irregular shapes. Examples are squares, hexagons, cadastral parcels and hydrological units.
Representation¶
In Systematic Conservation Planning, a representative system captures the full range of planning features (species, ecosystems, and ecosystem services) occurring in the planning region, not just iconic species.
Restrictions¶
A constraint that must be met during optimization. The main constraints are that the area-based constraint (land area devoted to each action) is not exceeded and that each zone can only occur within specified planning units (e.g. the protection zone can only be possible in planning units that are not agricultural or urban coverage).
Systematic Conservation Planning (SCP)¶
A formal method for identifying potential areas for conservation management that will most efficiently achieve a specific set of objectives, commonly some minimum representation of biodiversity. The process involves a clear and structured approach to priority setting, and is now the norm for both terrestrial and marine conservation. The effectiveness of systematic conservation planning lies in its ability to make the best use of limited fiscal resources to achieve conservation objectives and to do so in a way that is defensible, accountable, and transparently recognizes the needs of different resource users.
User interface¶
The means by which people interact with a given computer application. A Graphical User Interface (GUI) presents information in a simple way using graphics, menus and icons.
Weights¶
The weights allow users to set relative priorities across planning features. Values typically range from "0" (no importance) to "10" (extremely high importance).